You Should Have Been Able To Save Me
by RedTailedHawkens
Summary: Why is Emma angry with Hook? Why is she torturing him so much? What did he do to her in Camelot?


Author's Note: So, this is just an idea I had when I was thinking about the events of 5x02. It's a theory that probably isn't true, but could have played a role in Emma turning dark. Please know when you are reading this; I am not saying this is the only thing turning her dark. Other things are happening, whatever happens in the rest of the season, but this too. I'll have a longer author's note at the end. I don't want to spoil the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time, and lines from the show are taken from the show episode 5x02

You Should Have Been Able To Save Me

* * *

Hook was kissing her. She thought it would be harder to get him to, but he was … until he pulled away. "It didn't bloody work."

And then she realized what had happened, what he had been trying for, and that familiar pain shot through her heart again.

"You've been talking to Belle."

* * *

 _Six Weeks Earlier – Camelot._

* * *

" _You liked the power, didn't'cha?" The darkness said to her in Rump_ _elstiltskin annoying, girlish voice._

" _No, I just did what had to be done." She said, knowing it was a lie. You can't lie to a part of yourself._

" _Well if that were true, then why didn't your kiss stop, that." He pointed to her hand, bubbling with darkness. "Tasty, isn't it? The darkness?"_

 _She hadn't thought of it before, but it seemed so obvious now. True Love's Kiss. Wasn't that the answer to everything? But she'd just kissed Hook with everything she had and it hadn't kept the darknes_ _s at bay._

 _Belle and Gold kissed all the time. She would ask Belle._

* * *

" _Emma? Is everything all right?" The Librarian, perceptive as ever, opened the door to her sleeping quarters and let Emma in, taking note right away of her tense demeanor._

" _I need to talk to you." Emma said, trying not to sound harsh and panicked. Belle nodded and offered Emma a seat on her bed. "When you and Gold, when he was the dark one, you to were together?" Belle nodded, "So, why didn't true love's kiss ever break his curse?"_

 _Belle sighed, "It started to once, the first time, he started to change back to the man he was, but he chose not to. He fought it, fought the love we had. He refused to let his curse be broken. And after that … well, once was enough. Once you choose to bear a curse, it's harder to be rid of it."_

 _Emma nodded. She left Belle, pretending to understand, but she didn't. She didn't want to be the dark one, and she loved Hook, so the curse should have broken. She hadn't fought back anything. There had been nothing to fight._

* * *

" _There is another option." The Darkness said._

" _Go away."_

" _But don't you want to know why your pirate can't save you?"_

 _Emma tried to ignore him, but he continued to follow her, to torment her._

" _Rumpelstiltskin kissed girls before Belle. He had an affair with Cora that did nothing to his curse. Only Belle's kiss could break the spell."_

 _Emma spun on him, angry, "I love Hook!"_

" _I'm sure you do, dearie, but is it true love? Love's kiss won't be enough to break a powerful curse. Must be true love's kiss to work. But then, Hook had a True Love, didn't. Wasn't there a girl he spent 300 hundred years avenging the death of. Sounds pretty true to me, and you know what they say about true love's dearie, you only get one."_

 _She tried to push him against the wall, tried to choke him. Of course, he just reappeared behind her._ Because he isn't really there _, she reminded herself._

" _Oh, but I'm real dearie. I'm real and I'm in you. I'm the darkness in you. I'm the darkness that killed Milah. Do you suppose he could truly love that?"_

" _SHUT UP!"_

" _I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, dearie."_

* * *

 _The taunts carried on with the days. David and Arthur went on a quest for a mushroom, and Emma was left to wrestle with the voice in her head over and over. She was alone with Hook every chance she got. She took him and kissed him with everything she had, each time letting out a silent prayer, "Please, please save me."_

 _Clearly nobody was listening._

* * *

 _One night she tried more than a kiss, and he complied. He stood before her with his shirt off, and his tattoo there for her to see. His skin was forever marked with the name of another woman. A woman he had loved enough to go to a land he hated and work for a boy he hated just so he could live long enough to discover a way to kill the man who had taken her from him._

 _Emma ran from the room, basking in the familiar pain of not being good enough. And the darkness egged her on. It told her that she could lose herself and her pain if she would just embrace who she was._

 _Hook could never truly love her, especially not now. Now was when she needed him to love her most, and he couldn't do that for her. She hated him for it. She hated him for not loving her enough. She reveled in that hate and let it take her over, pushing away the fact that she still loved him._

* * *

Present

* * *

"Why didn't it work?"

"It didn't work because there's nothing to fix, this is who I am now." She lied, "Why can't you accept that? Why can't anyone accept that?" Her anger wasn't fake as she pulled away from him. She was angry, just not for the reasons he thought. He didn't get to know why she hated him now. He got to be toyed with. He got to suffer.

"Because this isn't you. What the hell happened in Camelot?"

 _It happened long before Camelot,_ she thought. He _would_ blame her. He would blame it all on her. Fine, let him be torn between hate and love. She was saved the pain of that. She had chosen where she stood. "That seems to be the question of the day."

"Then bloody answer me!"

"I wish I could." She said, playing at being sad. Let him think his Emma is sad and needs to be rescued. He could never rescue her anyway.

"You can tell me anything."

That made her mad, the lies on his lips, the promises of a love that would only ever be second best. But she was smarter than that. No more sad Emma. Now he gets The Dark One.

"But that would be no fun." She taunts, "I'm tired of talking. Now do you wanna stay or not?"

She knew he wouldn't, but she played along. She saw the conflict in his eyes, and pretends to be hurt when he pulls away.

"Sorry Swan. This may be who you think you are, but this isn't who I am."

He storms out, as she knew he would, and she feels a small victory. She's tortured him, broken the heart that he mistakenly believes beats only for her. It's fun, seeing him hurt as she had. It's fun knowing she'll never hurt that way again. But she's not done with him yet. The Dark One doesn't show mercy. She will continue to break his heart, just as he had broken hers. When she's done, there will be nothing left.

* * *

Author's Note: So, CaptainSwan fans, please do not kill me. I am not saying that Hook is still in love with Milah and that his love for Emma is not True Love, though it is, of course, a possibility. I am just saying that that is what Emma gets convinced, or convinces herself, depending on how you interpret it.

The fact that Emma knew that he had talked to Belle made me think something similar had happened in Camelot, and I was also curious as to why their kiss in Camelot did not work, when it had started to work with Belle and Rumple until he stopped it. I hope they explain that. Anyway, this was an explanation I came up with. Whether it is true or all in Emma's dark, twisted little head is up to interpretation. I just wanted to write this, and now I have. I hope you like it, and please review.


End file.
